Is Your Enthusiasm Getting the Better of You?

It's good to have enthusiasm. This shows you have passion for life. When I'm feeling really enthusiastic, it's as if I'm going to fly off. It's a wonderful feeling. There's only one catch: if you don't use enthusiasm correctly, it will get the better of you.

Yesterday, I clocked our neighbour on the bus I was getting on. She was busy talking to the driver so I didn't think she'd noticed me. She has a reputation for complaining about her aches and pains. I sat right at the back of the bus but she made a beeline for me. She asked me how my mother was. Then she started telling me about her aches and pains. She lifted up her skirt and showed me her swollen knee joint.

"You still walk really fast considering," I said."Yes, but my legs really hurt. I can't walk very far.""It doesn't seem to be getting to you," I said. "You seem very happy." "I can't let it get to me," she said."Well, good for you!"

She said the doctors have got no cure for arthritis and she has to keep taking pills. I could only wish her the very best. She resumed her conversation with the driver, telling him about her aches and pains.

On my way to do my mother's shopping this morning, the same neighbour met me at the bus stop. This time she was very flustered. She complained how she had to walk to the next bus stop because our local bus hadn't turned up. She said she had so much to do in such a short space of time. I told her to stay calm. My bus arrived. It wasn't the one she wanted but she said she'll get on it and change a few stops down. She wanted me to sit next to her. She was on her morning errand for the elderly in our neighbourhood and she was worried she wouldn't be able to achieve all she had set out to. I patted her arm and told her to relax. I thought how wonderful it is that love is all there is and there is no need to worry about a thing.

"Isn't that just typical?" She pointed to the bus she wanted overtaking our bus. "I'm never going to catch it now.""You'll catch it at the next stop.""No I won't, she said. "It's way ahead of us.""Yes, you will."

At the next stop we both got off. I ran in front of her to stop the bus so she could get on the bus.

I believe my neighbour is a classic example of misplaced enthusiasm. One definition of enthusiasm is

"Great excitement for or interest in a subject or cause." Dictionary.com

My neighbour has bundles of enthusiasm. She's always rushing about running errands for her neighbours. The problem is how she's directing that energy is giving her what she doesn't want instead of what she does.

To manifest anything you need to feel enthusiasm. There are two types of enthusiasm: fear and love. Are you thinking you wish to experience such and such and yet you keep getting the opposite results? It could be your enthusiasm doesn't match your intent.

When you are enthusiastic about fear it "empowers" you to dream up worse case scenarios; and that is what you experience as your reality. This suggests that it is not your actual intent that matters but your feelings about it. You could have the best intention in the world but if you're coming from fear, it's down the plug hole.

How do you get your enthusiasm to always be in alignment with your intent?

You have to feel joyful. Joy is the Universe showing enthusiasm.

How do you stop attracting situations you don't want to experience?

Realise that you have enthusiasm and your enthusiasm is a feeling of joy.

If you have a thought to achieve something, feel the joy of getting the thing done and then let it go.